Revenge (1577)
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 The final battle of the Revenge |
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| Ship data | ||
| Surname: | Revenge | |
| Launching ( ship christening ): | 1577 | |
| Crew: | 135 sailors | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Type: | Four-masted galleon | |
| Length over all: | 36.60 m | |
| Width: | approx. 8.70 m | |
| Drive: | sail | |
| Displacement : | approx. 500 t | |
| Draft: | 4.55 m | |
| Armament: | ||
| 1. Battery deck | 16 × 18-pound colubrines | |
| 2. Battery deck | 14 half 9-pound columns and various freely pivoting cannons | |
The Revenge was an early modern sailing ship that can be classified as a galleon and sailed under the English flag.
construction
The bow fort of the Revenge , launched in 1577 , ended with the hull. At Steven A protracted was placed Scheg that after the bowsprit pointed graduated. The ship had two battery decks.
history
The Revenge was under the command of Sir Francis Drake in 1588 . On July 20, 1588, he received an order to sail from Lord Charles Howard of Effingham, the then commander of the English fleet, to fight the Spanish Armada , which was nearing the English coast - Spain and England were at war and the Spanish King Philip II . had sent the Armada to England with the intention of invading.
The following night the Revenge led the English fleet into the English Channel in the direction of enemy lines - it was the only ship that had lit its stern light above the transom - the other ships followed the lantern. Howard, who temporarily lost sight of the guidance signal with his flagship, was able to resume it later, but was surprised when at some point he had to identify the ship carrying the guidance signal not as Revenge , but as the opposing flagship San Martin . Only a sudden escape into one's own ranks could prevent an argument and possible arrest. Drake had therefore deliberately deleted his beacon at night so that he could single-handedly take as a prize a ship of the Spaniards damaged the day before, the Galleon Rosario . This earned him 45,000 gold ducats.
On July 25, 1588, Drake continued his original mission and cruised the Isle of Wight with the fleet . On August 8, 1588, the English fleet reached the port of Calais. In the decisive naval battle of Gravelines , the Revenge and the rest of the English fleet managed to attack the Spanish armada anchored in the port of Calais . This attempted a breakthrough through the English lines and was finally able to flee towards the north, badly damaged - the invasion project had thus failed. The Revenge was able to sail back to England.
In 1590 the Revenge was the flagship of Vice Admiral Richard Grenville , who under Admiral Howard received the order to attack the Spanish silver fleet in the Azores. The British Association came across 53 Spanish ships on August 30, 1591 near Flores . In the ensuing battle, the crew of the Revenge finally had to surrender in view of the superior strength of the enemy . The Revenge was taken over by a Spanish prize squad . She got caught in a storm with 16 other ships, was thrown onto a rock in front of the island of Terceira and sank. Grenville was wounded in the naval battle and died on September 10, 1591 in captivity on the flagship of the Spanish admiral Alonso de Bazán on the high seas .
Poetry and music
For the last battle of the ship, Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote the ballad The Revenge, a Ballad of the Fleet . It was set to music by Charles Villiers Stanford for four-part choir and orchestra.
Even the song Lord Grenville by Al Stewart refers to this last battle of Revenge .
literature
- Richard Bagwell: Ireland under the Tudors. 3 volumes. Longmans, Green and Co., London 1885-1890.
- Nicholas P. Canny: The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland. A Pattern Established 1565-76. The Harvester Press, Hassocks 1976, ISBN 0-85527-034-9 .
- Attilio Cucari: Sailing Ships. The queens of the seas - history and typology. Bassermann, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8094-2346-1 (Italian original edition: Velieri. Storia e tipologie dei dominatori del mare. Mondadori Electra SpA, Milan 2004, ISBN 88-370-2477-0 ).
- Peter Earle: The Last Fight of the Revenge. Methuen, London 2004, ISBN 0-413-77484-8 .
- Cyril Falls : Elizabeth's Irish Wars. Methuen, London 1950, (Reprint: Paperback edition. Constable, London 1997, ISBN 0-09-477220-7 ).
- Friedrich Jorberg: Warship "Revenge" , in: Lothar Eich (ed.): Cracks of ships of the 16th and 17th centuries , 5th edition Rostock (VEB Hinstorff Verlag) 1979, pp. 25-37.
- AL Rowse : Sir Richard Grenville of the Revenge. Cape, London 1937.
Footnotes
- ↑ Manuel Fernández Álvarez : Felipe II y su tiempo . Espasa, Madrid 1998, ISBN 84-239-9736-7 , p. 576.